I don’t usually watch the Tyra Banks show, but yesterday I learned that she would feature models from Italian Vogue magazine’s highly anticipated “all-black” July 2008 issue featuring black models. According to Banks, this issue was the highest-selling issue in the history of Vogue’s Italian edition. After reading that the magazine planned to release an issue featuring “all-black” models, I bought a copy to see what all of the hype was about. The key word here is hype. For me, the reason why Vogue Italian chose to devote an issue to black models was the more important issue. As I have written previously, as in other genres, there is a serious underrepresentation of models of African descent. And, the same way other industries handle such issues, Italian Vogue attempted to address the issue without adequately addressing the issue. I remember several years ago the television program “Beverly Hills 90210” was also accused of lacking diversity, or, being “too white”. How did they handle the accusation? They produced one episode in which a black family, featuring an unknown actress named Vivica Fox, moved into the neighborhood. Apparently thinking they had adequately addressed the accusation, “90210” remained almost 100% white for the remainder of its time on the air.

Many businesses handle this accusation in similar methods. When accusations of racism or racial exclusion appear, they quickly hire a person of color so that it appears that they are doing their part to ensure diversity. Of course, such actions never solve the problem. If the new employee has any sense, he or she will realize why he or she got the job, while real diversity is still not achieved and the overwhelming whiteness of the environment remains intact. With this in mind, why would I expect an “all-black” issue of Vogue magazine to magically change the rules of the game in the nearly “all-white” fashion world? In reality, I didn’t. Italian Vogue, just like any other magazine or business, will simply follow the script. In fact, the “all-black” edition wasn’t as black as the magazine had promoted it to be. While there was a section of the magazine that featured models of African descent like Naomi Campbell, Tyra Banks, Liya Kebede, Sessilee Lopez and Jourdan Dunn, in an example that the magazine would continue business as usual, the first 100 pages of the magazine featured women of the standard color in the fashion industry. The common explanation for the lack of diversity on runways in São Paulo, New York and Paris is that magazines and fashion designers are reluctant to employ them because “black girls don’t sell.” So what does that say about our worldwide society in the 21st century? While we point the finger at the magazines and designers, they point the finger at society.

The timing of this issue is particularly important considering the possibility that the most powerful country in the world may elect the first black president in its history. This is exactly the issue at hand. A question that could be equally applied to the Obama situation in regards to American politics would be, do people really believe that one magazine that is partially devoted to black models will suddenly erase their historic rarity and exclusion in the fashion industry? In the same way that there are those who would never vote for the “black guy”, there are those who have an aversion to “dark meat”. The models used for advertisements in this “all-black” issue featured white models almost exclusively which seems to support the idea that designers choose not to use black models to sell their product. Therefore, in reality, dedicating a small section of the magazine to black models for a single issue serves to perpetuate their image as the exotic “other” in the same manner that the media always portrays persons of African ancestry. This will become obvious when Vogue magazine, American, Brazilian, Italian or French, continue the standard of whiteness in their upcoming issues.